May 27, 2026
In 2004, following its enlargement, the EU launched the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) as a platform for regulating relations with 16 eastern and southern partners to achieve the closest political association and the strongest economic integration.
The Policy is flexible, it has been reviewed several times in response to changes in socio-economic development and politics on the EU’s external borders. It stipulates the signing of an Action Plan with each country, which can evolve into an Association Agreement, and allocating respective financial assistance.
The European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) was the tool to provide financial assistance under the ENP. The Instrument was launched in 2007 to replace MEDA for Eastern and Southern Mediterranean countries and TACIS for assistance to CIS states during the transition period.
In 2007, the European Territorial Cooperation (ETC) officially became one of the three objectives of European Cohesion Policy. At that time, three strands of this policy emerged, each with corresponding ERDF funding: cross-border cooperation known as INTERREG А, transnational cooperation known as INTERREG В, and interregional cooperation known as INTERREG С. The recognition of European Territorial Cooperation as an EU development objective boosted the emergence in 2007 of two more tools stimulating regional development along the external borders – IPA CBC (EU entry preparation instrument consolidating several previous programs like Phare, ISPA, etc.) and ENPI CBC (neighbourhood policy instrument).
In 2006, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament adopted Regulation No.1082/2006 on a European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC). This is considered an important step towards the development of territorial cooperation because it provides an opportunity for participation of entities of different levels (central, regional, local authorities, etc.) with broad capacities to develop and implement the territorial cohesion policy at cross-border, transnational, and interregional levels. The main features of these new cooperation forms include their cross-border nature, legal personality, availability of headquarters located at the territory of the EU, and a budget. The first EGTC was Eurometropole Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai founded on 28 January 2008 on the French-Belgian border.
The promising outlook and best practices of EGTCs encouraged the Council of Europe to promote the development of similar entities in non-EU countries. Therefore, in late 2009, Protocol No. 3 to the European Outline Convention on Transfrontier Co-operation between Territorial Communities or Authorities concerning Euroregional Co-operation Groupings (ECGs) was adopted. Like EGTCs, these groupings have legal personalities and the most extensive legal capacity accorded to legal persons under the national law.
Three new regional forms of cooperation emerged in the late 2010s within the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy. They are designated to boost the socio-economic development of countries in large geographical areas of Europe, preserve their distinctive features, and address the problems arising from the geographical conditions of these areas, including through cross-border cooperation. First, the Black Sea Synergy was launched in 2008. The Union for the Mediterranean was launched the same year. In 2009, the European Commission decided to promote cooperation in Eastern Europe as well, within the framework of the Eastern Partnership (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine).
You can find out more about the CBC in Europe:
on the European Commission’s website
https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/policy/cooperation/european-territorial/cross-border_en
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_03_358
https://enlargement.ec.europa.eu/european-neighbourhood-policy_en
in the Council of Europe’s and EU legislative documents:
https://rm.coe.int/1680078b0c
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1542202501929&uri=CELEX:32006R1082
https://rm.coe.int/1680084827
The project is part of the Regional Future programme, which is funded by the Swiss-Ukrainian project Ukraine’s Cohesion and Regional Development (UCORD) and implemented by NIRAS Sweden AB with the support of Switzerland.